Reader – Response Dear Mr. Henshaw I actually read Dear Mr. Henshaw when I was in 5th grade and I remember being able to completely relate to the main character Leigh. Although not all kids would be able to relate to Leigh, I think a good majority would be able to understand what he was going through and see where he was coming from. Throughout the course of this book you see Leigh exhibit a wide variety of emotions. He goes from loving Mr. Henshaw to almost regretting the fact that he ever chose him to write to in the first place, overcomes people stealing his lunches, and deals with the aftermath of his parents divorce. I think Beverly Cleary did an excellent job writing from a young boy’s perspective. She really plays into your emotions and reminds the reader what it is like to be a kid. I was able to relate to Leigh because I know what it is like to be raised by a single parent, and I saw first hand the struggle thats placed on a family. My aunt is a single parent, and sometimes no matter what she does its just not good enough. She can't attend the father son baseball game, and it's not the same if she teaches my little cousin all the activities and games that fathers are supposed to. I see what my cousin goes through when he's waiting for his dad to call, so when Leigh was waiting for his dad to call and says "Dad should be phoning any day now. When I said that at supper, Mom said for me not to get my hopes up, but I know Dad will remember this time. (49) it really hit home. Its heartbreaking to watch kids have their hopes and dreams crushed, but in the end Leigh comes to terms with his parents divorce and he understands that his parents aren't meant to be together. I think the most important take home message from this book was about growing. Leigh goes through so many obstacles in this story, he doesn't always handle the situations in the best way, and he endures some setbacks, but he's determined and he's still optimistic about moving forward in his life. In his first letters to Mr. Henshaw, Lee is encouraged and excited to be writing to a real author. After Mr. Henshaw doesn't give Lee the response he was looking for, Lee becomes discouraged and hateful toward Mr. Henshaw. He ends one letter with " Maybe I won't even read any more of your books. Disgusted reader, Leigh Botts" (12). This part made me laugh because when I was younger and things didn't go my way I would be dramatic and make life very difficult for my mother., so I could relate to Leigh signing his letter with "disgusted reader". Rereading this book as an adult I've realized that children are fragile. You never realize how something can really take a toll on their lives. This story really uses anticipation to keep the reader interested. Although the book is at an elementary reading level, I found myself wondering if I was ever going to find out who was stealing Leigh's lunches, or if his dad was ever going to come back home. The anticipation was definitely a key part in holding my interest in the story.
I think that this book would be really beneficial to teach to kids in elementary and middle school because they are doing a lot of growing up during this time and going through confusing situations. I think that kids going through any situation would benefit from reading this book. Leigh's story shows that life isn't always easy, and you have to keep going. I also liked the idea of Leigh keeping a diary and writing to pretend Mr. Henshaw. Kids today don't always have someone to talk to, so they can't freely express themselves, and then they bottle up all of their emotions. By writing to pretend Mr. Henshaw, Leigh was really able to talk about his parents and their divorce, and he was able to say things that maybe he wouldn't say out loud. If I were to teach this book in a classroom I would maybe incorporate doing journal entries and discussions into my lesson plan. I would get all of the kids journals and tell them that they could write whatever they wanted in them, and if they wanted to discuss what they wrote in class, they could. By doing this it would encourage the kids to start discussions and know that it was okay to express their opinions on what they read. It's important for children to know that whatever their opinion is it's not stupid. I think this lesson would also work with older kids, but instead of teaching Dear Mr. Henshaw, I would teach Freedom Writers, which is a book completely different in context but also incorporates the use of journals in class. In Chapter 3 of Pleasures of Children's Literature it says " Experienced and competent readers use a variety of reading strategies as they interact with texts: activating relevant prior knowledge, schemata and appropriate concepts; predicting; questioning; inferencing; allocating attention; creating mental images; comprehension monitoring; relating new information to old; using the author's organizational framework; and restructuring schemata or accommodation" (31). I really liked this statement because it really emphasizes the fact that there are many different ways that people read and therefore not all kids are going to benefit from the same learning strategy.
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Reader – Response Dear Mr. Henshaw
I actually read Dear Mr. Henshaw when I was in 5th grade and I remember being able to completely relate to the main character Leigh. Although not all kids would be able to relate to Leigh, I think a good majority would be able to understand what he was going through and see where he was coming from. Throughout the course of this book you see Leigh exhibit a wide variety of emotions. He goes from loving Mr. Henshaw to almost regretting the fact that he ever chose him to write to in the first place, overcomes people stealing his lunches, and deals with the aftermath of his parents divorce. I think Beverly Cleary did an excellent job writing from a young boy’s perspective. She really plays into your emotions and reminds the reader what it is like to be a kid. I was able to relate to Leigh because I know what it is like to be raised by a single parent, and I saw first hand the struggle thats placed on a family. My aunt is a single parent, and sometimes no matter what she does its just not good enough. She can't attend the father son baseball game, and it's not the same if she teaches my little cousin all the activities and games that fathers are supposed to. I see what my cousin goes through when he's waiting for his dad to call, so when Leigh was waiting for his dad to call and says "Dad should be phoning any day now. When I said that at supper, Mom said for me not to get my hopes up, but I know Dad will remember this time. (49) it really hit home. Its heartbreaking to watch kids have their hopes and dreams crushed, but in the end Leigh comes to terms with his parents divorce and he understands that his parents aren't meant to be together. I think the most important take home message from this book was about growing. Leigh goes through so many obstacles in this story, he doesn't always handle the situations in the best way, and he endures some setbacks, but he's determined and he's still optimistic about moving forward in his life. In his first letters to Mr. Henshaw, Lee is encouraged and excited to be writing to a real author. After Mr. Henshaw doesn't give Lee the response he was looking for, Lee becomes discouraged and hateful toward Mr. Henshaw. He ends one letter with " Maybe I won't even read any more of your books. Disgusted reader, Leigh Botts" (12). This part made me laugh because when I was younger and things didn't go my way I would be dramatic and make life very difficult for my mother., so I could relate to Leigh signing his letter with "disgusted reader". Rereading this book as an adult I've realized that children are fragile. You never realize how something can really take a toll on their lives. This story really uses anticipation to keep the reader interested. Although the book is at an elementary reading level, I found myself wondering if I was ever going to find out who was stealing Leigh's lunches, or if his dad was ever going to come back home. The anticipation was definitely a key part in holding my interest in the story.
I think that this book would be really beneficial to teach to kids in elementary and middle school because they are doing a lot of growing up during this time and going through confusing situations. I think that kids going through any situation would benefit from reading this book. Leigh's story shows that life isn't always easy, and you have to keep going. I also liked the idea of Leigh keeping a diary and writing to pretend Mr. Henshaw. Kids today don't always have someone to talk to, so they can't freely express themselves, and then they bottle up all of their emotions. By writing to pretend Mr. Henshaw, Leigh was really able to talk about his parents and their divorce, and he was able to say things that maybe he wouldn't say out loud. If I were to teach this book in a classroom I would maybe incorporate doing journal entries and discussions into my lesson plan. I would get all of the kids journals and tell them that they could write whatever they wanted in them, and if they wanted to discuss what they wrote in class, they could. By doing this it would encourage the kids to start discussions and know that it was okay to express their opinions on what they read. It's important for children to know that whatever their opinion is it's not stupid. I think this lesson would also work with older kids, but instead of teaching Dear Mr. Henshaw, I would teach Freedom Writers, which is a book completely different in context but also incorporates the use of journals in class. In Chapter 3 of Pleasures of Children's Literature it says " Experienced and competent readers use a variety of reading strategies as they interact with texts: activating relevant prior knowledge, schemata and appropriate concepts; predicting; questioning; inferencing; allocating attention; creating mental images; comprehension monitoring; relating new information to old; using the author's organizational framework; and restructuring schemata or accommodation" (31). I really liked this statement because it really emphasizes the fact that there are many different ways that people read and therefore not all kids are going to benefit from the same learning strategy.